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Hal Yorke
Henry or Harry "Hal" Yorke was an English Vampire and formerly an Old One, who first appears in Series 4. He is notable in that as a Vampire, he had two personas which he switched between every few decades in cycles; one kind and good-natured, the other cruel, sadistic and evil. Following the Devil's apparent destruction, Hal's humanity was seemingly restored and thus his two personas were apparently either merged or replaced with a new one, although the defeat of the Devil may have been an illusion. Biography 'Early Life' Hal was born sometime in the late 15th century to a prostitute in a brothel, most likely around 1490. He did not know which one of the prostitutes was his mother but he loved them all nonetheless. When he became an adult he ran away to sea, and ended up in Gdańsk. He fought in the Battle of Orsha where he was injured by a Muscovite soldier wielding a lance. When lying in a forest in Belarus, presumably dying, he willingly accepted the chance to be turned into a vampire by an army surgeon. At some point afterwards he went on a bloody rampage across Europe with Fergus (who he had recruited), which lasted at least until 1855. By this point his sheer brutality and carnal bloodlust had gained him a reputation, and other Vampires were afraid of him - including the Old Ones (except for Mr. Snow). At some point in his life he gained the name 'Lord Harry', though it is unclear if this is an actual title or just a nick-name. In episode 5 of series 4, we are shown that Hal is unaffected by a cross. He then tells a story of how 300 years previously he was trapped in a monastery in Budapest by a group of monks. After 9 months a monk came and asked him whether he would repent all his sins. Hal killed the monk and used his dead body as a human shield against the ill effects of the cross. By 1918, Hal was living in a château in northern France, and held a position of power among the vampires at this time. It was there that he became embroiled in a war with the werewolves under the leadership of Lady Catherine, though he began to suspect that their conflict was being instigated by outside forces. He allowed Lady Catherine to learn of his location, knowing that she would not be able to resist the chance to assassinate him. When she arrived, Hal engaged her in a brief fight, after which he requested that they parley. It was then that he revealed to her his suspicion that the vampires and werewolves were both being manipulated by none other than The Devil. Hal and Catherine tracked down the ghost of a the powerful Necromancer Emil in order to carry out a ritual which would trap the Devil in a physical body and weaken him so that he can be killed. The ritual was intended to use the blood of the vampire and werewolf leaders, plus the ghost's own essence in order to bind the Devil. Hal, fearing any backlash that might result from his own blood being used, instead took some blood from one of his vampiric soldiers. As a result the spell was only a partial success: the Devil was bound into the body of a local lunatic (later revealed as Captain Hatch), but Lady Catherine was killed as the ritual concludes. Hal sent his vampires to find and destroy the Devil, but the creature managed to escape him. In the 1950s he lived in England, and had got into the practice of running dogfights. It was here that he met his new recruit, Cutler, and spent much of this time trying to get rid of the younger man's humanity by encouraging him to kill. He also had some contact with Fergus during this time. However, he stopped all contact with them when he met Leo in 1955. 'Series 4' He lived with Leo (a werewolf) and Pearl (a ghost) for over 55 years, until Leo's eventual death from old age and the strain of so many transformations. Pearl's 'unfinished business' was to tell Leo she loved him, which she did just before his death. This enabled them to go through their doors together, leaving Hal with Annie, Tom and baby Eve, and he decides to take residence at Honolulu Heights. (Being Human 1955) Later on, Annie struggles with money because Tom is not earning enough money at his job at the cafe. Hal is asked to work there with Tom and he accepts, but at first, does not enjoy it but then finds it distracts him from temptation. When Hal watches Regus and a newly recruited Michaela walking away, he makes a reference to Ivan and Daisy which implies he knew them. (The Graveyard Shift) He showed his much darker side once again as he threatened the coroner who was covering up the Box Tunnel 20. Due to Kirby stirring up the relations between the friends, Tom attacked Hal and, after splitting Tom's lip, some of his werewolf blood came in contact with Hal's arm leaving a burn (as werewolf blood is toxic to vampires). Later on in the episode, when Kirby went on a rampage through Hal's room, tearing through his belongings, the ghost broke Hal's picture of Leo. He then, in a burst of anger, ran to the room upstairs where Kirby was hiding with baby Eve. He bared his fangs in anger at Kirby, but turned to find Annie had witnessed this, misinterpreted the situation due to Kirby's lies and she demanded that he to leave. Hal appears to drive away, but it is later revealed that he never left the end of the street. Tom later met up with him - both of them realising that it was Kirby who caused the friction between them - and the two went back to the house and confronted Kirby as he was about to kill baby Eve. However, Annie came back from the dead and destroyed Kirby. Hal fears that he is the one the prophecy states is destined be Eve's arch enemy, as the nemesis has a burnt arm.(A Spectre Calls) '' Later on, Hal meets a girl called Alex while he was cleaning in the cafe and she tries to "chat him" up, but Hal resists having anymore contact with her because he is afraid that he may lose control of himself and drink her blood. ''(Puppy Love) In Making History, it is revealed that Hal is destined to revert to his former bloodthirsty ways and join the vampires in their campaign of global domination. It is shown that in the future he is much worse than in his previous cycles of murderous behaviour, however; he becomes one of the vampires' most feared generals, described by Eve as "violent, sadistic, and quite literally their poster boy". As she is telling this to Annie, the sound of thousands of vampires chanting Hal's name can be heard in the background. Seeing as almost all of The Old Ones were killed by Annie at the conclusion of The War Child (though Hettie did escape) it is possible that Hal is the oldest known vampire in the world. With Eve's future timeline averted, it is possible that Hal is no longer destined to return to a monstrous lifestyle. However, the chance that this may yet happen is a constant fear for him. 'Series 5' At the beginning of series five, Hal has been tied to a chair for a month, as Tom and Alex seek to help him overcome his return to the bloodlust. Hal becomes increasingly frustrated at Tom's inability to keep the house clean, and demands to be released. Alex and Tom eventually agree to untie him after he assures them that he is no longer a risk to humans. He goes so far as to swear upon the memory of Eve that he will not kill anybody. Following his release, he cleans the house and then goes with Tom and Alex to the Barry Grand Hotel, where he and Tom apply for jobs after they have been sacked from the Cafe on the Corner. Hal is given a job very quickly due to the hotel manager's obvious attraction to him. While at the hotel he is approached by Mr Rook, who asks that Hal take leadership over vampire society in the aftermath of the Old Ones' destruction. As payment, Rook offers a means by which Hal can obtain blood consensually, telling him that it never works out well when vampires try to live without blood. Hal declines, telling Mr Rook that "you do not want to see a world where I lead the vampires". Afterwards, Hal bumps into the hapless human Ian Crumb, who is on his way home after being told that he must re-apply for his own job. After Crumb is knocked to the ground, his anger leads him to confront Hal, whose vampiric instincts are roused by the sight of blood trickling from Crumb's nose. Hal flashes his fangs at Crumb, who immediately flees in terror. Hal runs after him in an effort to explain, only to see Crumb being run over by a passing car. Hearing the mortally-injured Crumb begging him for help, Hal feels guilty and gives Crumb some of his blood, turning him into a vampire (he later insists that he did not feed on Crumb at any point). Knowing that Crumb will become a dangerous predator in the wake of his transformation, Hal ties him to a radiator and locks him in the basement, though he cannot bring himself to tell Alex and Tom what he has done. His two housemates later discover Crumb while Hal is out, and Alex naïvely lets the young vampire go. When Hal returns he is attacked and knocked out by an enraged Tom, who then ties him back to the chair and asks him what happened. Hal explains about the car accident and claims that he never drank Crumb's blood, and that he only turned the man because he felt responsible for his death. Hal is untied after Alex admits to releasing Crumb, and the three rush to confront the young vampire at his place of work, where he has just killed the manager's nephew. Hal, tired of having survived for centuries while all around him good people die, is ready to stake both himself and Crumb in order to end it all. However, Tom and Alex persuade him not to do so. Crumb is then taken into custody by Mr Rook and his clandestine government department. Hal may have become a human he had defeated the devil, but it may have been an ilusion. Personality He is portrayed having traits of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), having many rituals and "routines" in his daily life. For example, Leo gave him a set of dominoes, which he set up in a spiral every day but never knocked down. This was to teach him to resist small urges, making the bigger temptation - blood - easier to manage. When Leo died, Hal chose to knock over the dominoes for the first time, showing he had lost control. However, it is unclear if Hal has always had this OCD-type personality, or if it has manifested mainly due to Leo's influence. He also values 'central heating, carpets and Radio 4' as essential and that being forced to see the house in a dirty and untidy state was torture (even going as far as asking for a screen to be put in front of him) We also discover that Hal does embroidery, origami and can also play the lute (which he considers to be "the coolest of all Medieval stringed instruments") and the piano (Annie schedules a piano lesson for Eve with Hal in the "Hal & Annie" clip). In addition, he appears to enjoy poetry. When working at the cafe with Tom, he shows more examples of how sticking to a routine can help him suppress the urge to drink blood; "Keep busy, keep sane" ''he says. He also orders the eggs in the cafe in order of size, a example of how he must like to organise things. Another example would be that when he was nervous about going on a date with Alex, Tom gave him a box matches and some of the matches inside were the wrong way round. Hal quickly snatches the match box, saying gleefully, ''"We'll see about that!" and putting the matches back into the box properly. As a person too, Hal is also extremely organised. He plans out what activities and house work he will do every day and even sets times for them. Some of these activities include press ups, writing, cleaning and listening to Radio 4. Hal has told Annie and Tom that he doesn't sing, but on two occasions, Hal is seen singing while cleaning. The first time, he was washing the dishes and singing "Reach Out I'll Be There" by the Four Tops [1]. However, he is interrupted by Annie and goes silent from embarrassment. The second time, he was mopping the floors in the cafe and singing'' "Work To Do" ''by the Isley Brothers. This must indicate that Hal does indeed, sing, but seems embarrassed to admit and sing in front of others. When it comes to social interaction with humans, Hal seems to struggle because when doing so, he constantly battling against his urge to drink blood. Hal also for some reason is not allowed to drink Kia-Ora. Leo and Pearl said when Annie asked what happened "We don't talk about it." It's possible that Kia-Ora changes Hal's behaviour to what it's like when he's drunk blood. Abilities As a Vampire, Hal possesses immortality and enhanced strength and senses. Furthermore, as an Old One, he is stronger than younger Vampires and is completely immune to religious items such as cross. Also, he doesn't need to be invited into a house to be able to enter it. Hal possess great knife handling skills, presumably learned when he was a soldier during the early 16th century. For example, he was able to gain the upper hand during his knife fight with Lady Catherine, toying with her, and hold his own for a while when fighting Tom, who is a hardened and skilled vampire hunter. He possesses a good knowledge of the supernatural, allowing him to perform the ritual to trap the Devil and identify rare species like Succubi and Demons. Finally, he seems to have great charismatic skills as he rallied several new vampires under his command in a few minutes. Relationships Thomas McNair Hal took residence at Honolulu Heights with Annie and Tom after Leo and Pearl crossed over. At first, Hal and Tom had complications. Due to their second natures and personalities, they clashed quite often. Hal would often comment of Tom's "chavvy" accent, and insulted his werewolf nature. They were also quite close to killing each other, but set their differences aside to help Annie protect Eve. Working at the cafe together, Hal and Tom gained a mutual fondness for each other which kindled into a friendship. After Annie's crossing over, Tom and Alex agreed to help Hal manage his condition, and eventually Tom regards Hal as his "best mate." Alex Millar While working in the cafe, Hal met Alex, who showed an interest in him. Although he tried to make her uninterested and to leave the cafe due to his vampiric nature, a date was arranged. On the date at a museum, Hal resisted the temptation to bite her. Later on, in a bar, Hal met with Alex and the two argued. Hal had been fuelled on a feeding, and was out of character. Later, when Cutler gave Hal blood, he showed her Alex's dead body, drained of blood. She returned as a ghost, warning Hal about Cutler's plan to expose werewolves. In return, he promised her revenge. At the end of the 4th series, after Annie left, Alex became part of the group. The two gained a strange and complicated relationship together. Annie Sawyer Hal took residence at Honolulu Heights with Annie and Tom after Leo and Pearl passed over. At first, Hal and Annie don't seem to be the best of friends. Their personalities are extremely different, however they later become friends even though their natures are nothing alike. Leo Hal first met Leo around 1955 when he was a "ruthless killer." Initially, Hal captured Leo in order to use him in dog fights – however, one day, Hal visited Leo who convinced him to set him free. Along with that, Leo arranged a house in which they lived together, and Leo helped Hal stop drinking blood. For fifty five years, Hal and Leo were good and old friends. He saw Leo and Pearl as the people who kept him safe from drinking blood. When his two best friends crossed over, Hal was devastated, and almost relapsed into drinking blood again. He even mentions in ''Puppy Love ''that he would like Tom to "perform a similar role as Leo did". Pearl Pearl lived alongside Hal and Leo at their home in Southend. They seem to have a bickering sibling friendship. Little else has been shown about their relationship. Nick Cutler Hal recruited Cutler into vampirism as a replacement for his legal clerk. Cutler and Hal had a long history and many dark times together. Hal killed his wife, Rachel, when Cutler would not kill her. More than fifty years later, Cutler then killed Alex as revenge. Trivia *Hal has been compared to other vampire Mitchell by the fans of the tv series, due to him replacing Mitchell as a main cast member. However, in a lot of ways, Hal and Mitchell's personalities can be seen as polar opposites. For example, Mitchell has great social skills, even with humans, but Hal seems to be socially awkward at times, epsecially with humans. Appearances Series 4 #Eve of the War (first appearance) #Being Human 1955 #The Graveyard Shift #A Spectre Calls #Hold the Front Page #Puppy Love #Making History #The War Child Series 5 #The Trinity #Sticks and Rope #Pie and Prejudice #The Greater Good #No Care, All Responsibility #The Last Broadcast (final appearance) Hal has appeared in 14 episodes in total. Category:Vampires Category:Supernatural Beings Category:BBC Characters Category:Males Category:Old One Category:Characters Category:Undead Category:Humans Category:Being Human BBC Category:Series 4 Category:Series 5 Category:Type 2 Category:BBC Vampires